George Zimmerman Continues to Be a Public Menace and Human Nightmare

[Content Note: Misogyny; rape culture; revenge porn; privacy violation; doxing; Islamophobia; description of sexual assaults at first link.]

George Zimmerman has spent his life harming people and evading accountability for it. He allegedly sexually assaulted his younger cousin for a decade, but charges were never brought. He was arrested in July 2005 for "resisting officer with violence," but "the charges were reduced and then waived after he entered an alcohol education program." One month later, his former fiancé "sought a restraining order against him because of domestic violence. Zimmerman sought a restraining order against her in return. Both were granted." He racially bullied a co-worker, but was only fired after he repeatedly called the human resources hotline to "complain about each and every manager and employee."

He killed black teenager Trayvon Martin, and was acquitted, then evaded federal civil rights charges, and then claimed he was doing god's will when he killed Martin.

In the years following his acquittal, he threatened his then estranged wife and her father with a gun; the charges were later dropped. He was then arrested again for domestic violence, but again faced no charges. Earlier this year, he was involved in "a road rage incident as part of an ongoing dispute." In August, he went on a homophobic and racist tirade on Twitter, during which he used racist slurs against President Obama, and, in September, he tweeted an image of Trayvon Martin's dead body.

[CN: Screen caps of tweets at link] And now his Twitter account has been suspended after he engaged in "revenge porn" by tweeting naked pictures of his ex-girlfriend, accompanied by her contact information and racist invective against a man whom he believes she was seeing.

The "@TherealGeorgeZ" account showed two different naked photos and an email address for the woman Thursday afternoon.

"This is Heather," the first of two tweets about her read. "She cheated on me with a dirty Muslim." He added a phone number and told his 15,500 followers, "She'll sleep with anyone."

Minutes later, he continued, "Did I go to far? I won't even mention that she stole a gun and cash from me."

Will Zimmerman finally face some consequences, beyond having his Twitter account suspended? Probably not!

Carrie Goldberg, a board member at the Initiative and an Internet privacy and sexual consent attorney, said in an email that the Tweets were "repulsive" but may not amount to a violation of the revenge porn law due to the fact that the pictures don't show what the statute defines as "nudity." Zimmerman, though, could be held liable under the state's coercion, stalking or harassment laws, she said.

"Zimmerman's publication of the victim's personal information like her phone number and email address suggest an intention to incite third parties to contact this woman in a sort of harassment-by-proxy scenario," Goldberg said. "Not only could he be arrested criminally, but this behavior makes a strong case for the victim to obtain an order of protection from family court."

Officials in the Seminole County Sheriff's Office didn't immediately respond to a request to know whether the authorities are aware of the tweets or any domestic dispute involving Zimmerman.

Police didn't want to prosecute Zimmerman for murdering a boy in the street until they were obliged to bring charges under the duress of national outrage. I'm sure they care even less about bringing charges just because he violated the privacy and incited violence against a woman.

This guy is a public menace. He is going to kill someone else, or get someone killed, and no one with any power seems interested in stopping him.